


lingering

by wingsaloof



Series: você não me ensinou a te esquecer [1]
Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, M/M, Minor Kamikizaka Reni/Tachibana Yukio, One-Sided Relationship, Past Relationship(s), Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:47:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23953294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wingsaloof/pseuds/wingsaloof
Summary: Reni pays a visit to Yukio's family.
Series: você não me ensinou a te esquecer [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1748425
Comments: 8
Kudos: 47





	lingering

**Author's Note:**

> BEFORE YOU PROCEED: THIS IS HUGE SPOILER TERRITORY IF YOU'RE AN A3EN PLAYER. I REALLY APPRECIATE YOUR PRESENCE HERE, BUT PLEASE BE MINDFUL THAT THESE ARE SPOILERS EVEN FOR JP PLAYERS!!!!  
> if you're okay with that, then please be my guest.
> 
> hello a3 community, the ghost of yukio tachibana possessed me and i spat this out.
> 
> some things to consider:
> 
> \- my headcanons about the tachibana family are sprinkled all over this  
> \- some reni hcs also spilled into the fic  
> \- reni's feelings in here are in the past and all one-sided, but he has some relapses every now and then (points to the title). i'm not sure if i should tag it as reni/yukio, so this is why it's tagged as a minor relationship  
> \- as of today (may 1st 2020), there's little information on izumi's family situation and reni's past (besides the part 3 preview), so if you read this after part 3 is released and many of this is proved inaccurate, then i apologize, but i hope you'll still enjoy this huge 'what if'

Her eyes are wide and bright... like every other infant’s. That observation sounds obvious to him — and it is — but it came to him as soon as she came into sight, and he corrects himself right after thinking about it. 

“Izumi, be nice to Reni, okay?” Yukio gestures in his direction, letting Izumi take her own steps towards him. Usually, it was Yukio coming to his house, not the other way around; but has it been that long since he last visited the Tachibana household? This girl right here was Yukio’s daughter, the one who was born a couple of months ago?

The pictures of her around the room inform him that he’s gravely wrong, and Yukio chimes in with “she turned three last month!”.

Three years since she was born.

Four years since Yukio got married.

Five years since the founding of Mankai Company. 

Six years since they graduated high school.

Seven years since he realized his feelings for acting.

Eight years since that spring.

Reni isn’t sure about his perception of time anymore. Everything feels a little fake; from the (intentionally?) fabricated feeling of a home (Yukio isn’t in any of the pictures, save for the bride and groom holding hands over her belly), to the woman standing in a corner, watching her daughter with loving eyes (her gaze changes when she turns to her husband). Maybe it’s because Yukio never talks about his family at all when they’re together, with only brief comments thrown around when someone asks him about it at work. It’s almost unnerving— but most of these feelings disappear when Izumi finally manages to cling on to his leg.

Crouching down, he realizes he’s still too tall to be at her eye level, but maybe this will make things easier. Reaching out to her, she grabs three of his fingers and chirps a “nice to meet ya!”, in that somewhat charming way all kids talk in. He mimics a handshake, replying with his classical, over-and-over practiced smile. 

Then the feeling comes back to him, as he looks down on her and sees Yukio in her eyes. In the brown of her hair, the small curves at the edges of her lips. It finally hits Reni: Yukio got married and had a daughter, he has a life away from theater and away from him.

At that moment, he feels an abyss growing inside of his chest, devouring his insides. Absurdly hollow for a second, until Yukio tells them to have fun and moves to the kitchen. 

It’s not like he ever had any hopes (if you don’t count those couple months back in their second year), and up until now, he liked to think he had successfully gotten over his schoolboy crush. There were even men who came after him, but they had gone away with the seasons, while Yukio remained by his side, like the good friend he was.

Izumi blinks at him and asks if he likes playing house. 

Acclaimed actor Reni Kamikizaka is unable to say no to a child. 

“Do you want more tea, mister Bear?”

‘This child has been watching too many American cartoons’, Reni thinks. From calling all her dolls “mister” and “lady”, to doing exaggerated twirls and singing her words every time she serves some pretend food. There's no denying, Izumi is the child of an actor.

‘Nevermind’, he once again reaches an obvious conclusion. ‘Yukio must be spoonfeeding her Broadway musicals.’

“What about you, Reni-san?”

“I- I’ll have some too.” He stutters, holding out the plastic teacup. It’s so small he can barely hold it between his fingers, similar to the handshake he shared with her earlier. As she pours invisible tea (at least that’s how she calls it), he says his thanks and sips on lukewarm air. 

The silence coming from the kitchen stirs that uneasiness into the bottom of Reni’s stomach one more time. He doesn’t feel unwanted, but he also doesn’t want to take longer than necessary at that house. He’s sure Yukio, or at least his wife, will agree with him. They haven’t had the chance to talk — the last time they saw each other was at the wedding ceremony, besides him spotting her once in a while in the audience — but he has the feeling that she’s not very welcoming of Mankai-related things, or people. 

Izumi, on the other hand, is an exception and seems to be having the time of her life over having a new playmate to interview. She asks if Reni knows how to braid his hair and if he can teach her later (yes, and maybe, if your parents are okay with it). She asks about his job and his house, and his family and his friends. If he has any pets (she wants to get a rabbit), what’s his favorite food (she’s surprised when the answer isn’t ‘curry’), if he knows how to read all of the hiragana alphabet (she gasps when he nods). Izumi doesn’t have Yukio’s clumsiness, but it’s clear where she got her brightness from. They go over a whole teapot and two invisible cakes until her mother calls them for dinner, and Reni helps her with tidying up her toys. 

To his surprise, he finds playing with her to be relaxing. Despite Izumi being a reminder of many unsaid things, he finds himself grown fond of her by the time they sit at the table (after washing their hands, of course. She says she’s a grown girl who doesn’t need any help, but Reni supervises regardless). He’s not a ‘children person’ — he feels awkward around them, too careful at times, not sure how to proceed. He has to watch his words around them, so they won’t be confused by what he says; they’re too small and have those huge eyes that make him feel like his soul is laid bare for them. It’s uncomfortable, to say the least. 

Children are the only audience he doesn’t know how to act for, and yet, they still love him like everyone else.

(He finds some relief in that, to his surprise.)

  
On the train back home, Reni is unable to recall the taste of the meal or whatever small talk he made with the Tachibana family. He can’t even remember if they had dessert or not, or what was the accompanying drink. The beer Yukio had in hand, though, was in a corner of his mind, along with Izumi’s sleepy stance as her mother took her to bed. She insisted to say her goodbyes to him before going up, taking the chance to ask him to come to her house again.

“If your father invites me, I’ll come.”

To which Yukio scoffed and waved her good night.

It didn’t take long for him to make his way out of that house, with excuses of an early day tomorrow and pleasantries exchanged with Mrs. Tachibana. His steps felt aimless, but light, as he made his way to the station. 

Paradox.

As carefree as Yukio was, everything about him felt needlessly complicated. The atmosphere in his house also fitted that description, where Izumi’s warmth filled in the silence left by her parents.

Even his daughter, young and innocent as she was, felt like a paradox. Maybe because she’s too much like Yukio, she takes a lot after him; that’s the third obvious conclusion he reaches in the span of five hours. 

That’s one too many headaches, so Reni calls it a night and pretends that dinner never happened. Unsurprisingly, Yukio does the same the next time they see each other, and proceeds to do so every time he crashes at his house, or when they spend the night at the theater.

He insists on burying it all away, along with everything else.

The memory of chubby, small fingers come to him as he sees the figure of a young girl standing proud at the entrance of Mankai Company.

**Author's Note:**

> hmu over at [twitter](https://twitter.com/wingsaloof)


End file.
